The trench - Two ethnic groups, one history

Southern Carinthia: Here, the Slovenian and German-speaking cultures have coexisted for decades. Gräben or Grape - these are the names of the valleys in southern Carinthia. Trenches still stretch between people like the trenches once did, sometimes even within a family. The Slovenian peasant families lived in the trenches, the Germans were tradesmen and factory owners in the valley. The coexistence turned into enmity in war and post-war times. After the war, both ethnic groups remained in a kind of hostile rigidity. Distrust, defiance and ignorance covered deep wounds on all sides. In "Der Graben" both groups are now working together for the first time to come to terms with the last 100 years. Using the method of "participatory re-enactment," director Birgit- Sabine Sommer combines the narration of contemporary witnesses at original locations with original props in cinematic episodes. In the microcosm of the Vellach Valley, where perpetrators and victims were and are neighbors and they often reversed these roles, history comes alive.